Poor Sleep Increases Odds of Nursing Home Placement

(HealthDay News) – Older women with fragmented or disturbed sleep have a significantly increased risk of placement in a nursing home or assisted living facility five years later, according to a study published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Adam P Spira, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and associates conducted a prospective study of 1,664 community-dwelling women (mean age, 83 years) who completed an average of four nights of wrist actigraphy. The authors sought to determine if objectively measured sleep patterns were an indicator of subsequent placement in a nursing home or personal care home.

The researchers found that women with the most wake after sleep onset (by quartile) and those with the lowest sleep efficiency were more than twice as likely (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.94) and three times more likely (aOR, 3.25), respectively, to end up in a nursing home in five years, compared to those with sustained sleep. In addition, both the women with the most wake after sleep onset (by quartile) and those with the lowest sleep efficiency were more than twice as likely to end up in a personal care home in five years (aOR, 2.33 and 2.38, respectively), compared to those with sustained sleep.

"In very old community-dwelling women, greater wake after sleep onset and lower sleep efficiency are risk factors for placement in a nursing home or personal care home," the authors write. "Sleep duration alone does not appear to increase the risk of placement in these long-term care settings."